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Healthcare costs

In 1994, more than one million people died in Rwanda in one of the worst genocides in modern times. Rwandan society, at all levels including healthcare, continues to count the human and financial costs of the tragedy – a burden which is compounded by the debilitating scarcity of resources in the nation as a whole. Most of Rwanda’s 8 200 000 inhabitants are united by poverty: according to figures published by the World Bank, the yearly per capita income in Rwanda is 220 USD.

Diabetes is rapidly emerging as a major health-care problem in India, especially in urban areas where the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes has been reported as 12% of the adult population. Furthermore, there is an equally large pool of people with

Kyrgyzstan is a small mountainous country with a predominantly agricultural economy; it gained independence with the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. For a significant sector of the Kyrgyzstani population, economic difficulties at national level translate into high unemployment and widespread impoverishment. Kyrgyzstan inherited an extensive but basic health-care system, with a functioning – albeit fragmented – structure for managing chronic diseases.

Insulin is a life-sustaining medication and as such has been designated an ‘essential drug’ by the World Health Organization (WHO). Insulin therefore should be universally available to everyone who requires it for survival. However, accessibility to the drug is often not secure. This results in life-threatening
complications for people who depend on insulin for survival. The authors of this article, in reporting on the results of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) survey, 2002-2003, make a call for improvements to the pricing and availability

The growing diabetes crisis in the United States is a well reported fact. Nevertheless, diabetes-affected families are often being left out in the cold.
Many are forced to dig deeply into their own pockets because, in many cases, even if insurance is available, insulin, syringes and blood glucose testing equipment as well as medical services such as outpatient education, so essential for diabetes care, are not covered.

Over £5.2 billion a year – 9 percent of the entire National Health Service budget – is spent on diabetes and its complications in the UK. There is no doubt that diabetes is a significant health economic issue here, as it is elsewhere in the world. Although diabetes is not consistently high on the government’s priority list, Diabetes UK has been successful in forming a strong lobby, which is increasing in political weight.

The Tanzania Diabetes Association, established in 1985, is playing a crucial role in providing people in this extremely impoverished country with essential diabetes care.
What, at the outset, may have seemed nearly impossible through a lack of funds, has, nevertheless, come into being through a well organized strategy and clear objectives.